Professor Umbridge was secretly fuming inside that McGonagall and Dumbledore had shown up before she had had a chance to handle me herself in private. I on the other hand felt much better sandwiched between Dumbledore and McGonagall, who still had her steady arm around my shoulder. There was so much anger from all three of them that I was having a hard time not wanting to go and punch a wall myself!

We walked in complete silence until we got to the statue in front of Dumbledore's office, the portrait swinging open instantly upon his approach, and headed up the winding steps that were becoming all too familiar to me. Was it normal for one student to spend so much time in the Headmaster's office in one year? It hadn't even gotten to winter break yet!

Dumbledore pushed open the wooden door leading to his office, and stepped aside, letting all of us come through, before closing it swiftly behind Umbridge. To my surprise Snape was there, lurking in the corner and staring at the Minister with intense loathing; I was not surprised to see the Minister.

"Dumbledore, is this Miss Carson?" Fudge asked, eyeing me with a peculiar look. Fudge didn't know what to make of me, and to be honest he was a bit frightened of me. After all what witch could make someone freeze from the inside out without the use of a wand? And a fifth year at that.

"This is her Minister, yes."

Fudge came down the three steps leading up to Dumbledore's desk and stared at me. I wasn't sure if he was expecting me to cower and run for the door, actually I figured that was what he was expecting since surprise hit his mood when I didn't even flinch at his invasion of my personal space.

"Are you aware of what you have done?" he asked me.

"Of course she is aware Minister," McGonagall said, trying to restrain an eye roll, "but obviously she didn't do it on purpose!"

"I believe I was asking the girl Minerva," the Minister said, eyeing her sternly. Professor McGonagall bit her tongue. "Now, I am going to ask you again. Are you aware of what you've done?"

"Yes Minister," I said, staying completely monotone.

"And you realize that by assaulting a teacher, that gives me grounds to have you expelled and your wand taken away from you, correct?"

"Yes Minister," I said again, keeping the same tone.

Fudge stepped back a second. "So, Professor Umbridge has offered us an account of what happened last night, but by procedure we are required to have records of what happened from both parties. If you will, have a seat."

Fudge pointed to the seat that had been strategically positioned across from a woman whom until now I hadn't paid much attention to. She was short and had glasses that made her eyes look like they belonged to a fly, and was wearing a puke colored green and yellow suit. Steadily I walked over and sat down in the seat, staring at the woman.

"Please make a note Josephine that this is Abby Carson, a fifth year Gryffindor student at Hogwarts' testimony on the events that happened between her and Professor Dolores Umbridge last night, November 16th."

I watched Josephine type every single word that Fudge said into her magical type writer that appeared to have no paper in it, but the words were magically appearing on a scroll that seemed to be translucent.

"Now, Miss Carson please answer my questions to the best of your knowledge," said Fudge, sitting down on a chair Professor Dumbledore brought over to him. Dumbledore took a seat beside me, but slightly behind, beside Professor McGonagall who was so nervous she was having a hard time sitting still. Snape was still lurking in the corner, observing me closely.

"Now, please tell me what you were doing before you ran in to Professor Umbridge," Fudge said, leaning forward slightly in his chair.

"I was walking back from Professor Dumbledore's office," I said plainly, after reading from Dumbledore's mind that it was okay for me to tell them I was here.

"And what were you doing in Professor Dumbledore's office?" Fudge asked.

"We were merely discussing how my courses were going this year," I said with a shrug.

"Your courses? You didn't discuss anything else?"

"No, just my courses."

Fudge stared at me for a couple of moments, Josephine eyeing Fudge with her hands poised to type. "Very well," said Fudge, not convinced we were only talking about my classes.

"So after you were done talking to Professor Dumbledore what did you do?" asked Fudge, leaning forward even more.

"I left and started heading back towards the Gryffindor Common Room. I wasn't paying attention to where I was going, and I ran into Professor Umbridge who was coming around the corner the same time I was."

"And what did you do after you ran into Professor Umbridge?" asked Fudge.

"I apologized, and tried to walk around her."

"Then..." said Fudge encouraging me along.

"Professor Umbridge said that she hadn't hear what I said, but I knew she had, so I tried to go around her again, but she side stepped and blocked my way."

"And why didn't you just repeat what you had said?" asked Fudge.

"I don't know...didn't feel the need to?"

"Hmm...please make a note Josephine that Miss Carson attended detention with Professor Umbridge after showing a lack of respect for her superiors earlier this term. Please continue Miss Carson."

"Professor Umbridge asked me if I remembered my detention with her. I ignored it and merely asked her to move again. She refused to move until I answered her question, so I told her to move or I would make her move."

"When you said you would make her move had you intended to cause her physical harm?" Fudge asked.

"Obviously not. I was in a bad mood and I just wanted to go back to my common room. Professor Umbridge was prohibiting me from doing that."

"But you did threaten her, yes?"

"Yes," I said, the tension in the room building.

"Then what happened?"

I left out a sigh. "I don't know exactly. Professor Umbridge went to make a retort back to my comment and all of the sudden she couldn't speak. She put her hand to her throat and stumbled backwards against the wall."

"You made her neck start to freeze, correct?"

"Yes, but that hadn't been my intention. I didn't realize what I was doing."

"But hadn't you just threatened Professor Umbridge moments before?" said Fudge.

"Minister, is this a testimony or an interrogation?" asked Snape, pushing himself off the wall so that he was in the full light. "That question seemed to have an accusatory air to it," said Snape, emphasizing that last couple of words.

Fudge stared at him for a couple of moments. "Please disregard the last question," Fudge mumbled to Josephine, who did some complicated hand movement to erase Fudge's question.

"Please explain how you didn't realize what you were doing," Fudge said, still eyeing Snape curiously.

"I didn't realize what I was doing. I was annoyed she wasn't moving, but the threat had been empty. I've never done anything like that before. I was very confused on what was happening."

"So, what did you do after Professor Umbridge's neck started to freeze?" asked Fudge, returning his stare to me.

"Nothing. I was about to go for help when Professor McGonagall appeared. She took Professor Umbridge to the Hospital Wing while I went to her office." I decided to leave out my mental breakdown in the hallway.

"Please note the end of Miss Carson's testimony Josephine." Josephine did so before packing up her recording device and leaving the room. I assumed she was heading back to the ministry. Before she did so, she handed Professor Fudge a copy of the testimony which he tucked away in his bag that he had been carrying with him.

"Now Miss Carson, Professor Umbridge has informed me that you are a Phoenix animagi; is this correct?"

"Yes, it is," I said.

Fudge's face went white and a wicked looking smile appeared on Umbridge's face.